| Title: |
New recommendations for self-locking barriers to reduce skin injuries in dairy cows |
| Authors: |
Lardy, Romain; de Boyer Des Roches, Alice; Capdeville, J.; Bastien, R.; Mounier, Luc; Veissier, Isabelle |
| Contributors: |
Unité Mixte de Recherche sur les Herbivores - UMR 1213 (UMRH); VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement (VAS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE); Institut de l'élevage (IDELE); Max Planck Institute for Ornithology; Max-Planck-Gesellschaft; University of Konstanz; Danone Research-ESTIVE Centre French government's IDEX-ISITE initiative 16-IDEX-0001 CAP 20-25; ANR-16-IDEX-0001,CAP 20-25,CAP 20-25(2016) |
| Source: |
ISSN: 1751-7311. |
| Publisher Information: |
CCSD; Published by Elsevier (since 2021) / Cambridge University Press (until 2020) |
| Publication Year: |
2020 |
| Subject Terms: |
skin alteration; dairy cattle; feeding barrier; guidelines; equipment dimension; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] |
| Description: |
International audience ; The design of self-locking barriers can affect cows’ skin injuries and impair welfare. This study aimed to propose and refine recommendations, expressed relatively to the cows’ dimensions, for self-locking barrier design to reduce risks for skin injuries on the neck/shoulder/back and on carpus of dairy cows. We recorded individual body dimensions and the dimensions of self-locking barriers (e.g. top rail height) and assessed skin injuries on 3801 cows from 131 loose-housing dairy farms. We explored the significant associations between presence/absence of skin injuries and self-locking barrier dimensions using weighted multivariable logistic regression, taking into account the diversity of feeding barriers within each farm. The robustness of the models was assessed by cross-validation. Cows had skin injuries mainly on the neck/shoulder/back (29.0%) and, to a lesser extent, on the carpus (14.0%). The final multivariable logistic regression models comprised 13 factors for skin injuries on the neck/shoulder/back, and 11 factors for skin injuries on the carpus. Skin injuries were significantly reduced when the self-locking barriers were inclined (neck/shoulder/back) and when the cows used a feeding table (i.e. flat) instead of a feeding manger or cribs (i.e. hollow) (carpus). A top rail height >1.05 × cow height (measured at withers) was significantly associated with fewer skin injuries on the neck/shoulder/back and on carpus. Skin injuries on the neck/shoulder/back and carpus were significantly reduced when the bottom rail was on the food side relative to the wall, and at a height 0.4 of cow height (carpus), was thinner than 15 cm (neck/shoulder/back and carpus) and when the height of the feeding step was 0.04 to 0.1 of cow height (neck/shoulder/back) and the length of the feeding step was |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/32223772; PUBMED: 32223772; WOS: 000577569400022 |
| DOI: |
10.1017/S175173112000052X |
| Availability: |
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02528942; https://doi.org/10.1017/S175173112000052X |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.976BCAD8 |
| Database: |
BASE |